Grimgar - Awakening
by PaulBR
Summary: A new group of adventurers has appeared in this mysterious world, what does destiny have in store for them? (I'm honestly not that creative with descriptions, but anything can happen. First story. Rated Teen due to possible violence)
1. Chapter 1

**First of all, this is my first writing, it may not be good, but it's something, so there's that. It may be a bit rushed, but I will at some point in the future come back and rewrite this. Probably**

**Second, if anyone decides to leave reviews, I ask that you leave actual constructive criticism, not "You suck" or "A 13-year-old could do better", it doesn't help anyone.**

**Third, Suggestions would be welcome, I would really appreaciate it if anyone could tell me what is good and what is bad.**

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****Chapter 1 - Awakening****

****Paul****

"Awaken."

__I don't want to, just five more minutes. __My body felt numb, weak even, I could barely muster enough strength to shield my eyes from the light coming from above, __My head hurts__.

"It is time." The voice said, louder this time, almost as if it was the only thing I could hear,

__I guess I don't really have a choice, better just get this over with. __Slowly, my body started answering me, first my hands, to give me support, next, my legs, to hold my body up. __My head hurts a lot.__

__Can't even sleep in anymore, and my head won't stop hurting, it's almost as if I got hit hard. __Slowly, I started to get up, at least to a sitting position, I started to open my eyes, slowly because of the light. __I could really do with some more sleeping ti- what.__

On the ground there were more people, though my vision was blurry, I could at least see the ones closest to me, just lying there, motionless. Not dead, I could see their chests rising and falling due to breathing.

A voice startled me, calling for someone to wake up, they weren't even shouting, it was so quiet even it they had whispered I probably would've heard them, it wasn't the same voice that told me to wake up, at least, I think it wasn't, this one sounded male, the other voice wasn't.

Probably.

Looking around, I found the source of the voice, a tall guy, judging by the voice, possibly taller than me, if what little I could see of him due to light was correct, kneeling next to others, trying to wake them up, and moving on. __Maybe I should call him? __The thought crossed my mind, and with this headache, better have someone around too.

Deciding to first get a look on my surroundings, I first notice that wherever we are, it's most likely underground, looks like a corridor, flames lining the walls, as in, there was a stone part thing below the fire, but there didn't seem to be anything keeping the fire on, but with enough distance between one another to leave a dark area in the middle, but the weird part was, the flames only kept going to one side, the other part of the corridor was in a pitch black darkness, __Weird__.

Next the 'bodies', there should be a dozen or so people here, if I counted correctly and there aren't more in the dark areas, perhaps I should go wake them up...

Another voice called me back from my thoughts, this time it was someone whining about wanting to sleep some more, probably due to Tall guy shaking them, another guy too judging from the voice. Maybe I should get up after all.

Slowly, with my body still weak, I got up to my knees and started rising, the background silence had been broken, and instead, confused voices started asking where they were, who the others were, all basic stuff honestly, first a few, the ones Tall Guy woke up before probably, then others joined in, brought up due to the sounds, even I joined them, now that were more people that may know something, some voices were female, others male.

A guy rose up, standing tall in the middle of the corridor, even though he wasn't really tall, he looked at the people on the ground, the two ways the corridor went, and turned to the people on the ground. "Does anyone know where we are?" His voice was louder than the others, which defused the situation a little, most people just shook their heads, while others just stared at him, asking if he did or if he had anything to do with this.

"I don't know either" he said, to the visible worry in the faces of some people, he didn't seem to notice it, turning to face the side where the lights went, he continued, "What I do know, is that we can't stay here, maybe there are others that know something to that way. If we move now, we may find something or someone before it's too late"

I couldn't argue with that. I started getting up.

****Aquilo****

It really didn't seem like we had another choice, if anything, we would at least be doing something, and who knows, maybe we would find the way out.

Some of the people are getting up now, others still in doubt sitting on the ground are looking at the man, probably not trusting him, I mean I don't trust him myself but I can't exactly just stay here waiting, if there is something dangerous to that dark side there it could reach us and then what? Better not to think about it.

"And if there isn't anything that way?", "What if there are people coming and we just have to wait", "What if there's danger that way?", I heard these questions and more while helping others up, some of them had a little trouble staying up, we should keep an eye on them, some of them could fall on the move.

"Thanks" A man I helped said to me. "No problem" I replied, it was really just something that had to be done, he, like others, couldn't stand correctly, but he seemed to be doing better than most, so I left to see if others needed my help.

After some minutes, the commotion had ceased and the Guy started leading us out, standing in front of the group, some people were helping each other walk, but things seemed okay.

"We have a plan right?" A known voice asked me, turning to look, I saw one of the guys I had helped before, helping someone else, he seemed to be doing well enough.

"Well, if we keep heading this way, we should be outside of... wherever we are, and then we get some answers of where we are." It was a solid plan, not much else to do as well.

"And if we don't find anything?" That was not something I had an answer to, but honestly, probably nobody did, so I just shrugged and kept walking, trying to wrap my head around whatever was happening, maybe I could remember something.

So name, my name is... why can't I... if I'm not mistaken, I think it's...

"Hey, you okay there?" Te same guy called me, apparently my confusion was fairly visible, I turned to him, a bit confused still, clearly I'm not the only one like this right? and asked him, "Do you remember your name?"

Apparently a bit louder than expected, since some others turned to me, maybe they thought I was crazy, forgetting my name like that, but still, I had to try.

He was quiet for some time, looking all around as if trying to find something, before turning to me again, "Now that you mention it, I can't seem to recall it either." So I wasn't the only one with that, I honestly don't know if I should be happy or fearful of that. Others started asking and answering that question too, a few more loud minutes followed.

After some more time walking and talking, we were distraught to learn that nobody remembered their names, and some were starting to get more panicked than normal.

This is going to be a long day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - Discovery**

**Sen**

Things could be going better.

First we wake up in this... place, surrounded by unknown people, no one to explain what happened, nothing that could explain either, nothing at all helpful.

And then we can't even remember our names. I've been trying for the last minutes to remember but every time I force it my head starts hurting again. What happened to us?

We don't know where we are, following someone we don't know to a place we don't even know whether or not it exists, for all we know, we could just be moving towards a dead end, then what? By the time we make our way back to where we started there could be something there already.

But it could be worse, I could be alone, or we could be prisoners, that's if we're not prisoners already but-

"I can't take this anymore, we've been walking for a some minutes now and nothing has changed! It's all rock and fire, where are we even going?"

Someone's not doing so well huh? Well it was bound to happen, considering the situation, he sounds angry, but maybe it's panic.

"Yeah, what if we're moving something worse? Maybe we should have waited where we were until someone arrived", This one sounds more defeated, we can't think like that yet, we may actually leave this place, better to try to do something than to sit by idly waiting for something.

"Listen, I don't know about you, but I'd much rather do something than stand around waiting." Someone agrees with me, that's good.

Our "leader' doesn't seem to pay much attention to this, being near the head of the group myself I can't see much of him, he just keeps walking and looking forward, as if he can see something, he could at least look behind him to see if everyone is still here, I would do it by my head hurts from just thinking, it may hurt more if I move it, hopefully the commotion on the back won't escalate.

"Even then, we're moving without a clue as to where we are or going."

"We've been walking for a while too, can't we rest?"

"Maybe we could call someone? Any of you have a cellphone?"

Thinking about it, we could use a cellphone...

"What is a cellphone again?" Everyone stopped, at least the few in front of me did, some clutched their heads, either because of the pain that I hoped wasn't only in my head or just out of confusion, I could also hear some groaning behind me, possibly others had the same pain.

"You guys don't know what a cellphone is?"

"You don't know?" I asked, you where the one to tell us to use it, how come you don't know what it is?

"I... I did, I knew what it was, why... can't I remember? Urgh my head..." Well then, this is certainly not good, thankfully we've stopped, I'll grab a part of the wall and rest a bit. Might as well see how the rest of the group is doing.

We don't seen to be in the best condition, most of us were being carried, and the ones moving on their own seem to be doing so with difficulty, male or female, at least they're all sitting down right now, it should help them recuperate, thinking about it, might as well sit down myself.

"We have to keep moving" the leader is calling us, but honestly, we need this rest right now, not all of us can keep going like he can, nor is anyone else built like a truck.

"Mate, we can't keep moving like this, half of us isn't in condition to move, and the rest is hanging by a thread, we need to rest for a while, regain our strength." Someone near the back said, I think he was carrying someone else too, so he seems to know more about their situation than the leader or I do.

"We can't stay, the longer we wait the more danger we could be in." But we can't keep on like this, don't you understand this?"

"And the more we move the worse they get, we need to rest, even if for a little" Listen to him for a bit will you?

They just keep at it, this leader still doesn't understand what is happening?

"If we stay here we risk getting caught if someone is following us" That's enough.

"And if we keep moving we risk losing some to fatigue." I had to say it, he's just getting in my nerves. The guy on the back seemed to like my help however, he nodded at me.

And while all of this is going on, my head keep on working.

What even is a truck?

**Ashlyn**

_They've been going on for a while now, _Ashlyn thought, sitting down, watching the group argue over whether they would keep moving or rest a while, _We need the rest, the others may not be able to keep up with us if we keep up like this, but we can't just stay here either so..._

"Why not send some people ahead to see if there's anything?" _I didn't say that out loud did I? _

"And how would you suggest we do that?" _Ah crap I did. _The leader had asked her that. Mild panic hit her, it seemed like the whole room had started looking at her, not that that was the problem, the problem was the fact that she had no real explanation on that. Just a vague idea.

"Well... we could send the faster ones here", _not that we have any way to know who they are _"Or we could send the ones that are on a better condition." Looking around, she could see some people nodding and whispering about it, they sounded positive even.

"What if the group finds something and leaves without us here?" The leader asked, it seemed like he didn't want to take any chances.

"If you're so worried, choose who goes yourself" The same guy who had chimed in during the earlier discussion said that, he didn't seem that happy about the situation.

The leader kept having a glare contest with the other guy, in the mean time, she assessed the situation, on one side, it would be better to have a group go forward so the others could rest a bit, on the other side, if the group found anything and left without warning them, or even worse, didn't find anything, things could get even worse for everyone.

"Very well, any volunteers?" Some hands were raised, most of them from up front, including the guy that was glaring at the leader, and a few from the back, including the guy who was arguing with the leader and herself, _better to do something rather than stay here_. He looked at all the volunteers carefully, before choosing a few of them, in total there were 5, _so the arguing guy, the glaring guy, and two guys from up front, but why not me? Well, maybe i could help the people around here while they're out._

"We'll be back soon." One of them said, though she didn't know which one it was. She started moving to help the others, maybe that would distract her from the other thoughts in her head.

Some people were having some problems standing up, so with the help of others, they were put leaning on the walls, so that they could rest better. Everyone was worried, some thought that they would find something, but whether or not they would leave was not something people talked about, they just hoped they could leave this place. Just hoped that no matter how long it took, they would be able to leave this place and be safe.

And with that thought in mind, she turned to the others, offering help wherever she could.

**Paul**

Pain still rang through my body, but if I had stayed there I'd be restless right now, even if I were to go around helping the others, I'd have to talk to them, and that's not as easy as some think. So here I am, with four others I don't know, moving towards who knows where, hoping to find something.

The group was divided in the Leader up front, apparently doing better than us physically, two other guys on his sides, and me and the other guy on the back just following. I had asked their names for easier communication but only the guy near me told me his name, the rest either didn't hear or didn't care. This guy was named Sen, so I likewise, told him my name, he didn't seem that keen on talking though and frankly, I preferred it that way.

This idea did looks better than just moving everyone, I remember at least 4 people close to falling out of exhaustion and the same pain I have, only it seemed they had it worse. _Maybe I'll thank whoever gave this suggestion later, if I remember who it was anyway._

So onwards they went, looking all around, hoping to find some sign that they were getting close to someplace safe, signs on the walls, a larger flame, anything at all.

We came into a right turn some minutes in, I think it would be better to bring people here to wait, but if we were to send someone back we would either have to wait for them or keep moving without them, and that could generate more problems, so we kept on going.

Some more minutes another turn, this time a left one, but still the same thing, a corridor with flames on the walls, so, we kept going, looking for something else, at least these turns meant that there could be something in the end, maybe people even.

No one even talked, it was just silence for a few more minutes, no-one said anything at all, just looking forward and around, trying to find something, when...

"Are those... stairs?" I turned to the voice, one of the two guys with the lead, he was pointing some ways forwards, I tried looking that way, but could only see darkness, still, if he said there was something, there would be no reason for him to lie.

And indeed, there they were, with flames near the first steps, but not going up, even then, there was a chance, the hope that these stairs, they could be our way out.

We might be able to leave this place after all...


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - Look Up**

**Aquilo**

I'm not exactly sure how much time has passed since they went out, but for me, it feels like they're taking a while to come back. Some of us are starting to get restless, saying that we should start moving now to link up with them, others are saying that they're lost down here, that there's probably a maze or something up ahead, and a few are even saying that they've abandoned us.

Honestly I don't buy that last one, they could leave us here if they wanted to but if outside there was danger it would be better to have more people to work together with, and the maze thing could be true, but if that was the case, so I only hope that they're still searching for something.

Because the alternative isn't really something I want to think about.

We've been doing what we could in that time, that being making sure people were comfortable and resting instead of moving around when they shouldn't, it sounds easy but honestly some people were just too stubborn, we'd put them somewhere, and five seconds later they'd be back up walking around, saying they were too restless to stay put, even though I understand that, if they don't rest now they won't be ready to move later. And by we, it was me and about three other people, I think two girls, but I didn't pay too much notice, I know at least one was a girl though, so there's that.

From the corner of my eye I spot movement, to my left someone is starting to get up, one of the 'restless', he isn't thinking on actually going after them right I hope, we shouldn't spread out more.

"Are we really going to stay here waiting for them?" he looked around, at the people sitting down, "from what I can see you're well rested enough, we can-, no, we should start moving now so we can keep looking for an exit." He had a point, but at the same time, if we rest more, we could have less people needing to be carried.

"And what if we find them and they're still looking for the exit? Then we'll just walk more until people get tired again?" She also has a valid point, but staying here is not a good plan either. We could either move up a bit more just so they reach us faster, stay here and wait or just go all the way,

Others joined in, either wanting to go look for the others or to just sit tight and wait, they kept going at it for some time, essentially nothing more than one side shouting "we have to go" while the other one shouted "we have to stay", truly compelling arguments if I may say so myself, I understand we're all tired and have more important things to worry about than how to convince others but a little dedication to that couldn't hurt much. Still, I wonder how long are they going to keep this up, maybe I should ask them to sto-

"How about you all just shut up for five seconds?!" Or that, that could work too.

I know that voice at least, she was the one that suggested some of us go ahead earlier, it looks like the tension has finally taken it's toll, we're all worried here, and nobody here seems to have nerves of steel. I just hope they get back soon, and with good news.

We need them, and we need them now.

**Sen**

We finally managed to find something, something that showed us we had a chance to leave, the area on the base of the stairs was even more alight than any other part around here, and even the stairs had lights going up to a certain point, about half of the way, all we had to do was go back and warn the others but...

"We should check what's in the end first." our 'leader' said, and while I can see his reasons for it, there really isn't any other way to go, we would just have to go back our way and venture in the dark if there was nothing here, and I know for a fact no-one wants to go that way anymore, not only that, but if there were stairs here that meant that there were other people here, therefore, it was safer to wait here than in the middle of a corridor looking at the dark.

"I agree, but I think we should bring the others here first, it seems safer here than back there." The guy named Paul said, I think that was his name anyway, I don't even know how I remember my name, it just came to me out of nowhere, at least he seemed to agree with me on this one.

"If we bring them here and there's nothing up there, we'll have to go all the way back and go into the dark part, why don't we just check now, so we know what to do?" One of the other guys countered, as if it wasn't already obvious that they wouldn't have another choice.

"What you fail to understand, is that it's more likely to be people on this part than back there, these stairs aren't here randomly, someone put them here", if they thought about that for a second they would have probably noticed that.

"Are you scared of going in the dark? If we don't have another choice, will you just wait here and hope someone comes?" I'm not sure if that's a taunt or something, but I'm pretty sure there was a grin in his face while he said that.

"It seems safer and smarter than walking randomly in the dark." I said, passing a hand on my neck, this is annoying and we haven't even been here for that long, we shouldn't-

"Listen, we can't waste time here, but we can't just go back either, since you two are so keen on it, you go back and bring the others, and if we don't find anything up there by the time you're back, we'll have to take the dark path, got it?" Lead said, I'm not even sure what his name is and I don't really care that much, but since he did decide to lead us it only makes sense, and at least he is seeing some sense.

"Yeah sure, it's better than standing here arguing for some more time." Paul said, as he started to turn around he motioned to me, "Better go now so we return before they're back, come on", I nodded and started following him, better to go fast anyway.

"If we have to go all the way back I hope you're ready to take all of their complaints!" The second guy shouted at us as we rounded the corner, I turned around to see him standing there, watching us leave, that stupid grin on his face, I'm also pretty sure I heard Paul cursing him under his breath, but maybe that was just my imagination.

"It's amazing how many of our problems were solved with 'let's split up' and no-one thought about them at first, this situation really is messing with our heads huh?" Paul said, we were moving back at a quicker pace than when we were coming this way.

Small talk, not exactly my best area, but he seems to be having the same problems, might as well try to keep up, "Yes, surprisingly."

"Not much of a talker too huh? Though you seem to talk way less than some", he was not wrong, but there is no reason to talk a lot just to say something small, "I understand, let's just get the rest then." That's a plan I can get behind, we moved, making quick time of the way back, it was fairly uneventful and even quiet on the way back.

Until we heard an echo of a scream, not a scared scream thankfully, it sounded angry, "Better hurry", he said, as if I there was any need to do that, we started running a little, he couldn't run very well, it seemed his body wasn't yet in peak condition.

Let's just hope they're not trying to kill each other.

**Ashlyn**

They looked at her like they wanted to kill her.

_I can understand their reason, seeing as I basically just shouted at them to shut up, but if we stop to think about it, they were shouting at each other first,_ The thought passed her head before she focused on everyone around and tried to collect her thoughts, a handful of people had been shouting, or having a discussion apparently, about whether or not we go or stay, when the noise was just too much for her, and she decided to ask them to quiet down, _in hindsight, I probably could have asked better now couldn't I?_

"You were the one who told them to split up, why don't you give us some help here?" One of the people from the 'leave' group told her, sounding a bit annoyed, whether at her for shouting at them, the other group for wanting to just wait around or at the situation in general was not clear, probably a mix of all three if she had to guess.

"I suggested that because it was the best plan, better to split up than to waste time arguing," she defended, which was the truth, unfortunately, that turned out to be the wrong thing to say.

"See? She understands, some of us go ahead, and check in on the others, and the rest of you can just wait around doing whatever." _Goddamnit, gotta think things through before saying, I know for a fact the rest of them don't think highly of me after that sentence of mine, _the situation was not the best one, and she had to admit that at least part of the fault was hers, and that maybe she should have just gone with the other group.

The sound of 'discussion' died down when they heard, and saw, two people moving in a hurry towards them, two members of the 'scouting party', apparently worried.

"What's happening here?" The taller one said, with some ragged breathing, apparently he wasn't in his top form yet. The shorter one didn't seem to be much better from the looks of things, "Scratch that, everyone get up, we found something.", that caught her attention more, did they manage to find and exit?

"Is it an exit? Can we leave this place?" She asked, almost as soon as she thought about it, nervousness creeping up on her, the thought of finally leaving here was more important than anything else at this point.

"We found stairs, it's safer there, there's more light too, so we're taking everyone there now, let's go" The shorter one said, before heading to someone sitting near a wall and helping them up, the taller one moved shortly after, she decided to do the same and started helping some of the ones nearby, _a nice compromise, we move up to the others to rest more, they don't seem to be groaning about that at least._

The two groups immediately got up upon hearing the news, with the 'leave' group simply moving ahead as if impatient, while the other group helped some others, _really shows how much they care about others, truly marvelous people_, another thought for later, for if- for when they left this place.

Most of the people could move on their on by now, and the group started following the two 'scouts', taking turns every once in a while, spirits seemed to be high as well, people where talking to each other, about what would be outside, about who they were, even about what a cellphone was, which was usually answered with a "I know what it is but I sort of don't", truth be told she couldn't explain it herself, she knew what it was, but her mind couldn't form a clear picture on it.

The taller one seemed to hang to the back a little, whether because of fatigue or to keep people from straying too far she didn't know, while the shorter one was leading everyone, in front of the group, since she was closer to the back, she decided to at least ask him about their destination, "Excuse me, where exactly are we going?", others around turned to them, apparently others had that question too but no-one wanted to ask that for some reason.

"Well, after some walking, we reached some stairs going up, there are more lights there too, but since there are stairs there, we reckon that there must be people nearby, since stairs don't just appear out of nowhere", he seemed to contemplate for a bit after saying that, but then turned back to her, "anyway, since there's those two factors, we decided to bring everyone back since it seemed safer." That made sense to her, altough it did raise one question.

"Then why did only two of you return? Where are the others?" Some sounds of agreement and questioning for others, it seemed she spoke for the group now.

"They're checking to see what's in the end, we only saw lights going halfway up the stairs" That got her alarmed, "so instead of staying around arguing we decided to split up and move the group to a safer place."

"Wait wait wait, what do you mean, lights until halfway? I thought you had found the exit?" The words came out together with her thoughts, _I really need to stop that, _But the damage was already done, some people were getting distressed at the thought of not leaving again.

"We think that is the exit, and even if it is a bit further, we better move closer so we all don't have to traverse a long distance." She could agree with that thought, though now she was worried, what if they were just moving to another dead-end? She didn't want to go through the darkness to try and find a safe place, but if that was the only choice...

They rounded another corner, and she just kept moving, looking only forward and thinking to herself, _please let this be an exit, please..._

**Paul**

Thinking back on it, I probably shouldn't have said that.

Sure, she wanted to know where we were going, but telling them that it might just be another dark place doesn't exactly soothe their nerves, as was shown.

If anything, people seemed more nervous than before, and it only got worse when after the last corner, we spotted something I was honestly hoping to not see.

Our three 'friends', waiting a few steps up resting and waiting. _This doesn't seem good, if they didn't find anything..._ The thought of them being angry with me wasn't what worried me the most, that was nothing, the most worrying part of all of this was that they would have to go to through the dark path. _Hopefully they're just waiting for us before leading us forwards. _We kept on moving, closer and closer to the stairs.

"We went up, a dozen or so steps after the darkness begins...", The way he just stopped talking made me think that either he was being suspenseful or he just didn't find anything and didn't want to say it, not that the others gave him the time to say something else.

"So we're stuck here? There's no way out?!" The guy I was helping shouted, forcing me to let him go, "We came all this way for nothing?!", This made some people stop on the spot for a second, before moving closer to the stairs, they probably decided to rest on the steps. Still, the thought that we were stuck here was in their minds, the girl that was talking to me was trying to help others, but it seemed like she was trying to distract herself more than anything.

Our leader maintained his composure, and simply stated the facts, nothing more, nothing less, "We found a wall at the end of the stairs, we couldn't move it ourselves.", and so they decided to wait, but to wait for more people to push or for all of us to return together?

Whatever the case, people were already looking distraught, they needed something to keep them going, and apparently, our leader was just waiting to say something, however...

"SO we just need some more people to push it! Yes, then we'll be able to keep going!" She put such an emphasis on the first word of the sentence it was like it simply came out suddenly, and frankly it might as well have, maybe she thought it and it was the only thing she wanted to believe in, so she did. Some nods and hurried responses were seen and heard, and we started to move towards the stairs when... whatever the hell it was happened, I can't explain it well myself.

When all of us where close to the stairs, a big circle with a pentagram, I think anyway, started glowing below us, some got startled and hurried to leave the circle, others too tires simply stared to the ground, even our leader got up and started moving towards us. Then, two blue line rose through the walls and rushed up the stairs, passing through and lighting the wall flames on their way, some of the people around me were gasping, mouths hanging open and even unmoving, myself included. But the best part was when it reached the wall they had talked about

The wall started sliding sideways, opening like a door to reveal something which got a better reaction from everyone, the blue sky, the white stars, freedom was finally within our grasp.

"I don't care what that was, to the exit, move!" Someone on the back shouted, not like we needed to be told twice, people rushed outside faster than I thought possible, even the most tired ones were moving faster, until finally, we were outside.

Fresh air swept over us as we walked out, as we examined our surroundings, we were in some sort of stone structure, and after people started saying look up, I did exactly that, though it was behind us, I noticed it was some sort of tower, going far up into the sky, in front of the exit, was a dirt path to some kind of city, looked medieval_, whatever that means, it just fits,_ Maybe they had the answer.

"Hey, guys, look up", someone said, I think it was that girl from before, judging from the voice, she was answered by people saying they had already had seen the tower, to which she responded, "No, I mean directly above us."

"Why is the moon blood red?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 - The Offer**

**Aquilo**

We were finally out of those caves, or whatever that place was, not that I really cared that much at this point, being outside and all, a big city in front of us, which meant people, which meant we weren't alone. We all just stood there for some seconds, some thanking the heavens for finally leaving, others just looking around, some even simply laying down for some more rest, just listening to the sounds of nature and the sporadic voices from the town every now and then, it gave us some sense of normalcy I guess, and yet not.

On one hand, it felt like this was how things should be, but at the same time, not quite, like there was something off, but I couldn't put my hands on what it was, and if anyone noticed that too, they apparently decided it wasn't as important, so I let it go, especially after someone quite literally pointed something out.

"Why is the moon blood red?", someone asked, I think it was that helper girl from before but honestly, I'm not trying to remember voices right now, anyway, she said that pointing upwards, and when we looked there, true to her word, there it was, gleaming in the night sky, the half moon, only difference this time was it's colour, some part of me thought it wasn't supposed to be that way, but I had no idea what other colour it was, plus the other part was telling me to just forget about it, and frankly, I agreed with the second part, we had appeared on a completely strange location, with no memories whatsoever, the moon having a different colour wasn't really that important at the time.

No, the important thing right now was the two people moving in our direction, coming up a dirt road from the town, with round shields in one hand and spears in the other, I froze at that sight for a second, they were armed, not only that, they were prepared for combat, they had some sort of armor on their torsos, and helmets too, or something protecting their heads anyway, I quickly tapped the shoulder of whoever was closest to me while trying not to stop looking at those two, whoever it was started calling the others while I started to think about what was happening.

On one side, these are people from the town, we appeared out of nowhere and they don't trust us, which makes sense, but at the same time, we ourselves don't know how or why we are here, and they might know, or they're the culprits, which to be honest makes this whole situation even worse, on the other side, since we've appeared just outside of this... tower, and it's close to the town, so maybe they know what happened and will help us, hopefully.

Our leader got up front and started giving orders, mainly, the ones that could stand with no problem would stay in front and the more tired ones or those that couldn't stand too well would be moved to the back, just in case these people were hostile, it was a pretty sound plan and we started moving following it, moving people to the back and going to the front, some even moved back with the others, though whether because they were afraid or because they wanted to protect the others in case anything happened to us I had no idea.

The two of them arrived, stopped a few meters away from us, and looked at each other, it sounded like they were talking, but we couldn't hear anything so we just stood there waiting, before one of them pointed towards us, the other moved up a bit more, and started speaking, it was a man, not too old from his voice, but he was fairly tall, taller than me anyway. "We are guards from the town of Advena, we've been ordered to escort you to Matthew, he'll answer whatever questions you have." Although he wasn't exactly full of confidence, the way what he said it sounded like we didn't have a choice, if we wanted answers, which we do, we'd have to go with them.

I looked around, to the ones beside and behind me, some where thinking about it, others were starting to get up and move towards the two guards, seemingly too desperate for answers to think about trusting those two, we didn't really have a choice though, so we reluctantly started following the two guards, moving away from the tower.

Before we left though, I looked back, and noticed the 'door' closing behind us, it seems there is no way back anymore.

Let's just hope we get some answers this time

**Paul**

The doors closing behind us, those two guards coming to take us to someone, this whole thing feeling normal and yet not, it was honestly unnerving, made my head hurt more than it had before, but we had to keep going, now that answers had been presented. We collected ourselves and started following the two guards, all the while keeping an eye around us.

It looked like this wasn't even outside the city, just a part of it, the 'tower' was in some kind of hill overlooking the town, and the closer we got, the bigger it looked, it was however too dark to actually see anything, so in the end I just decided to keep looking at the two guards leading us, not much to do really.

Once in the town we noticed just how big it really was, the buildings were big, most had two floors, if one counts the ground floor as the first floor, some buildings had alleys in between, and I could swear I saw people in them, looking at us, but I can't say for certain if they were there or not, since it was dark and all, some places had torches, but the alleys near those places were empty every time we looked.

We even passed through some guards, they just looked at us and kept walking, torch in one hand and sword in another, _hopefully just doing a regular patrol, if this town is in danger of attack or something like that... _I tried to focus on where we were going, better to think on those later, right now I needed answers, at the very least know where we were and why.

We rounded a couple more corners before we heard a call, seemingly coming from a fair distance away, "Thief, get him!", was heard multiple times, and the guards seemed to think for some seconds as to whether or not to go chase him down, another call caught our attention.,

"He's heading to the market square! After him!", this call seemed like it came from behind us, and as we turned around we saw about three figures, one hooded figure pass beneath a torchlight, running away as two others, guards from what we could see, chased him through the streets, soon, the guards we had passed came into the scene, and even other shouts could be heard, supposedly from other guards.

"Let's keep moving", the first guard said, prompting us all to look at him, back to the road the thief had run through, and back to them again, I'm fairly certain some of us were thinking on whether or not to ask them if we should be worried, in fact someone did, which was answered with "The other guards have it under control, plus we have orders, take you to Matthew." which meant they were serious about getting us to this Matthew guy, so, since we didn't have a choice, we kept moving, occasionally looking around to see if we could get a glimpse of the chase.

After a few more blocks of guards shouting and running, we passed a fairly bright building, full of voices and music, the first word that came to mind was Tavern, the second one was Inn, whether any of them was correct I have no idea whatsoever, and frankly, it wasn't important at the moment, so I decided to just call it a tavern, I was about to look away before a loud shout from the Tavern caught not only my attention, but the attention of others nearby. "Hey everyone, new arrivals!" a cheer followed that, along with some people coming to the doors and some windows opening.

There were all kinds of people there, some with more armor than the guards, others using just robes, some with barely any clothing, but all of them armed in some way, and all of them looking at us, not all of them were happy though, but the ones that seemed happy, they cheered, some fewer were even shouting welcome to us, and a loud call of "One round for the new guys" was received with another cheer from the tavern, they stayed at the windows for a little while longer before going back inside.

"What was that?" Someone asked, still not sure who, some answers from the group were simply "I have no idea" while others just didn't say anything, instead just looking around and at the guards, the taller one kept walking but did answer us.

"You'll understand soon enough." Was all we received, clearly only Matthew could tell us what had happened, either that or they just didn't want to talk, not that we had a choice, so we just kept following them through the streets, past other houses and guards, though these were not in any rush, they were just doing their patrols.

After a few more minutes walking, we came to a building located right in front of a big wall, it wasn't even a big building, it was simply a wooden building, built like an overturned boat, with a board with some papers on it outside, the guards stood on either side of the door and the taller one addressed us again. "Matthew is inside, he'll answer your questions." So this was it, the place to get answers, whatever they were.

I just hope it's not as bad as it could be.

**Advena**

They stopped in front of the wooden door of the boat shack, as she had decided to call it, they looked around at the others and at the building, there seemed to be something written in a wooden board, but it was too dark for the to see.

"In we go then, not like we have a choice." Paul said with a long sigh, Some people near him answered with a grunt, before starting to move inside, through the door, to meet the person who had all the answers they wanted.

Past the front door they were greeted with a large space, fully wooden, with some weapons and pelts hanging on the walls, pillars separated in between the middle of the building, a big fireplace in the middle of the whole building, and a small room to the left side. Around the fire were five benches, making a circle around the fire, over the fire was a cooking pot, and near the other room there was even a counter at the corner, and sitting behind the counter was someone else.

Behind the table, an elderly man was seated, looking at them, hands on top of the counter, they stared at each other for some time before the elder man stood up and made his way to the group. "Sit down, you must be exhausted." Some of them didn't even wait for another word, and moved to sit down at the benches, the others looking at him for a second before following the rest of the group, even though there were more than enough benches for people to sit down, some decided to keep standing, and instead leaned in the pillars.

Matthew sighed, and made his way to the remaining empty bench, and sat down, looking around at the new group, some of them were just tired, others, were looking at him wearily, and some just seemed lost in thought, staring at the fire. He cleared his throat, both to actually clear it and to call their attention, "My name is Matthew, current commander of the Crimson Moon Volunteers of Advena, I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability, though I can't promise to have all of the answers, or if they'll be what you're expecting." Some of them looked at him, expectantly, others just kept staring at him, it was happening just as the others had said it would.

Before any of them asked anything, he started speaking again, "First of all, I would like to apologize for all of us, but we do not know why or how you got here," some disturbed faces turned to him, a small hint of fear clear in their eyes, he sighed, and kept on talking " You weren't the first ones, and probably won't be the last, we don't know where you came from, nor how to send you back, not yet." Some exasperated looks were sent his way, again, expected, he looked around, a big, large and muscular guy was holding his hand in the air, looking at Matthew, he nodded at him, and the man started speaking.

"So we're just stuck here, is what you're saying? Can you even prove there were more like us before? For all we know you could be lying to us." A handful of people seemed to nod and agree with him, but Matthew just shook his head, and looked around, there were some just staring at him waiting for him to continue speaking, and that he did.

"Simple, for starters, not a single one of you said anything, and yet I knew exactly what you wanted to know, secondly, whenever you have free time, talk to the people at the Tavern, they'll all tell you the same story you guys have right now, arriving at a strange place, with no memories whatsoever, and with no way to return." Some of them were looking scared, and he could see a few of them simply staring at him, as if they didn't want to believe what he had just said.

"So, we're stuck here, with no memories, and nothing to maintain ourselves..." Someone said, in between deep breaths, Matthew knew what was happening, they were getting hopeless, not what he wanted, but sugarcoating things was never how he worked, he briefly wondered if by 'maintain themselves' she meant something to pay for basic necessities, before deciding that there probably wasn't another option for that question, he looked around once more, stood up, and spoke again.

"There is something for you to maintain yourselves, although I'm not sure you'll like it," He turned and started moving back to his counter at the corner, he could have sworn he heard someone say "Not like we have a choice." but he wasn't exactly sure if that was what they'd said. "The town of Advena has always had some problems with outside threats, goblins," A reaction from some, mainly widened eyes, "and orcs," more reactions, some even moving their mouths as if trying to say something but deciding not to, "along with other threats, not only that, but thieves inside the town keep us occupied, and some years ago, people like you started appearing in our city, with nothing to do, as such, a choice was made to offer you all a job."

Matthew made it behind his counter and leaned on it, looking at the group near the fire, "We need people to keep those outside threats controlled, and since the guard is imperative to the cities protection, we are willing to hire you as a volunteer force," A few of the group looked at him, not willing to believe or not understanding what he was saying, the tall muscular man spoke again.

"So you want us to go out and kill for you?" The group stared at the man in disbelief, then back at Matthew, "What is the offer? You said it yourself that you'll hire us, so what will we gain by doing this?" A handful of them nodded and looked back at Matthew, who analyzed the situation, it seemed unlikely that they would readily agree to this, but at the same time, he knew it was the better alternative to the many jobs the town offered.

He sighed, pulled a small bag from below the counter and spilled it's contents on top of the counter, before he started speaking, "For starters, 10 silver coins will be provided so that you may pay for your initiation in whatever area you wish to dedicate yourselves in, secondly, free housing in the Volunteer barracks will be provided to any to decide to accept the proposition, lastly, whatever you manage to grab while outside will be your property and can be sold for more money." He paused to let them process this information, they looked at him, then each other, then him again, he continued "Sometimes we might get special requests which come with their own bounties, which will all go to your own,possession, we won't take a single coin for you."

"We don't have another choice?" A female voice said, Matthew looked at the source, and found a girl seating in the benches, he asked for her name, which she gave as Ashlyn, and to the tall guy, which he gave as Ivan, before, he finally spoke.

"Some other places in town might be willing to give you jobs, but they won't pay as well as the volunteer force, nor are they as stable, nor do they come with the same benefits." He looked back at her, she seemed to be thinking things through, Ivan's face meanwhile, betrayed no emotion, he simply stared back at Matthew, "If any of you are interested, please approach the table, you'll get your 10 coins and I'll register you into the volunteer force." They looked back at him, their eyes moving from him to each other every few seconds.

"Can we think on this?" A small guy said, leaning on one of the pillars, Matthew thought about it for a second, while they could wait for a day, they would not be able to use the volunteer barracks until they decided to accept the proposition, he asked for the man's name, which was answered with a short "Sen", before he answered.

"If you want to wait until tomorrow, it's all fine, but you will have to find someplace else to pass the night, and you will have no money for food come tomorrow." It was the best choice for them to take, and if they couldn't make any more money, the town had jobs for them to rok at.

And refuse they did not, a few of them, right after his answer to Sen, moved forwards to collect their money, he made sign a paper with whatever they could remember of their names, and handed them the gold, before motioning to the door, "Wait outside or near the door until I'm done with the rest, and I'll guide you to the barracks, a few of the others came to the table looking defeated, before finally signing the paper and taking the coins, some others were hesitant, but seeing and there was not any other good alternative at the moment, they decided to join in, and soon, all of them had signed, the papers, though if all of them would stay with them, it remained to be seen.

He folded the papers and put them behind the counter, before moving towards the door, as he opened it, he turned around, and told the new recruits, "Welcome to the Crimson Moon Volunteers." and stepped outside, thinking about how they had been pushed into this choice, the best offer they had, or as someone had once said:

An offer they couldn't refuse.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 - Beginning**

**Advena**

Before everyone decided to just give up, the room was silent as they all sat there, pondering on their options, some had already chosen to join in the 'volunteer force', as Matthew had put it, but not everyone was sure on it or not, they had only taken the choice for a lack of a better option, but some weren't so sure about taking that choice at all, perhaps they could find a manual labour, help construct things, or cleaning taverns, but if what he had said was true, this was the best choice they had, or at least, as some had said, the 'less worse'.

Ashlyn just sat there, looking around, at the other people sitting beside her, the money on the counter, and back to the others, her mind was rushing, being offered money to kill, even if they weren't human as Matthew had put it, it was still somewhat wrong, and part of her hoped that others agreed with that sentiment, but no-one seemed too keen on looking at her, let alone talk to her, so she kept thinking, evaluating her options, deep down she knew, this was her best chance, but she still tried to find another way out of this.

Meanwhile Aquilo was leaning on a support pillar, joined by the man he had helped way back down in the 'cavern', they were looking at Matthew, sitting on his counter, with purses of coins and a paper for signing, from time to time, people would go there and sign it, grab their purses, and head either outside or close to the door, as they observed the scene the man spoke, "So, what do you think? About this choice I mean." He looked to the man, the light wasn't as good here but could still see him, black skinned, short hair, his face neutral, simply staring at Matthew, the man was taller than him, that Aquilo could notice easily.

"Honestly, we might as well go in, it's not like anything else will work out for us at the moment" Aquilo said, receiving some looks from the people seated near the fire, he didn't know what to do about that, so he ignored them and turned to the man, "What about you, thinking about going in?"

"I don't know, being fair it's not like we have much of a choice, as you said," more looks on their direction," but still, it doesn't sit well with me." Aquilo understood that, but whether they had the same reason was something unknown to him, and something he decided not to ask, before he could say anything however, someone came from behind him, and, as he passed, addressed both of them.

"We have a choice, but one is the best option, simple as that" He never turned to face them, he just kept walking until he reached the counter, signed his name, and took his purse, the man near him just sighed, shrugged and looked back at Aquilo.

"Sen's unfortunately right, but still, it doesn't mean I have to be happy about it." He moved away from the pillar, turned to face Aquilo, and continued. "Might as well make sure we support ourselves like we did back down there then." He tried to sound at least eager, but either the fatigue from his pains or just the whole situation made him sound more like someone who had accepted defeat, even his face looked like he wasn't too thrilled by this, still, Aquilo nodded, and watched as he went forwards, signed his name, and grabbed his purse, before returning to the same place, he counted the coins, before speaking again, "Hopefully we'll get to choose our own food at least." Aquilo looked at him with a puzzled look on his face, "I said that out loud didn't I?" He nodded, before looking around again.

By now, there were only six people, himself included, that hadn't decided whether or not to join in, the man near him spoke to all of them, not much confidence in his voice, even stuttering and pausing every now and then, "Guys, we don't have much of a choice here really, but how about we just sign up and go to these 'barracks'? It should clear our heads for tomorrow, and if anyone decides to not really join up you'll at least have the money," he turned to Aquilo, "right?" his eyes looked like he was pleading for help.

Aquilo stopped to think, yes it was true, it was never said they had to go out and kill, also, they could use the money for other things, but still, it seemed wrong, he turned to Matthew, who just nodded and kept watching them, before speaking, "As I said before, if you decide to leave, we won't take the money back, but we won't give you any more money after this, either you get a hold of your life, or you'll be on the streets in a week or two." The remaining six people looked at Matthew, at each other, and at him again, before giving up and getting up, a defeated look in some of their faces, they all signed and grabbed their purses, before heading back to the door again, Matthew grabbed the papers, folded them and stashed them somewhere behind his counter, before telling them "Welcome to the Crimson Moon Volunteers", before heading outside, leading them to their new home.

As they walked through the streets, Paul's mind kept racing back and forth, about whether he really would go through with it or not, if he would, then how would he actually do it, and if not, then what would he do, he paused momentarily, thinking if maybe the others were thinking the same, some of them had to be, he thought, before he kept following the group. The whole trip was uneventful, the shouts of pursuit had long since vanished, either the bandit had been caught or escaped, whatever the case, it was dead quiet, with the occasional dog barking and cat meowing coming from everywhere, after some minutes, they finally arrived at their new home, a building situated on top of a small hill, and the building he saw in front of him surprised everyone, if the gasps and questions he heard were anything to go by.

It was a wooden structure, or looked like it from the outside, but it looked more like a death trap than whatever it had once been, some planks where falling off, creaking noises could be heard even from outside, and it looked like it had no lighting inside as far as he could see, he only hoped the beds would be better at least, Matthew turned around and addressed them, "Welcome to the volunteer barracks, it might not be in the best state, but it is home, we have enough beds for all of you and couple more, there are baths and toilets in the back, the rooms have two double-beds each, so please do break the rooms in Male and Female, you won't be warned twice." Nobody seemed to really care about that, the shock from the state of the building seemed more important to them.

Sen was brought back to the world by a loud clapping from Matthew, standing in front of the door of this deathtrap that he would have to call home, Matthew spoke again, "Go on in, have some rest, tomorrow if any of you decide to stay in the force, pass by the HQ and I'll tell you what to do, and even if you don't, there are some things you need to know." With that, he just started moving around them to leave, back to his home probably, before he turned to them and said again, " And please come in groups, I don't want to repeat the same thing twenty-one times because you decided to come one at a time." and with that, he made his way back into the town.

The new volunteers stood there for some more seconds, before Ivan, or the leader, as some had taken to call him, walked through the door, the sound of the door caught their attention and they all decided to go inside, some waited until all the ruckus cleared, before going in as well, Sen found himself with Paul and whoever the guy with him was, as well as a girl following behind them, Paul pointed upstairs and said, "I'll take one the upper rooms if at all possible, any of you joining me?" he noticed that Aquilo after some thinking, agreed, and he nodded as well, and they all began moving to the stairs, to the upper floor, he didn't know them that well, but he knew Paul a bit more than the rest, and that was good enough for him at that moment.

**Ashlyn**

She had been following the only two people she knew for all this time, but as Matthew had said, the rooms were divided by gender, and she herself didn't want to sleep in the same room as them, still, they were the only people she knew, and if she woke up late next day, she could lose track of them, and they might group up with others, even though she thought that she was capable of joining another group, at this point she decided to play if safe, when they were in the door to their room, she spoke. "Hey," they turned around to look at her, at least Paul and Aquilo did, the other guy just headed into the room, took a bottom bed, and lied down to sleep, she stopped to think on what to say before continuing, "is it alright if we group up tomorrow?" The taller of the two, Paul if she remembered correctly, simply nodded, while Aquilo looked at Sen, probably looking for a response, before turning back to her and nodding, perhaps he had forgotten he had said his name, even she didn't remember whether he had said his name to her or she had just heard it in conversations, they proceeded to present each other.

Through this, she learned that that indeed, the taller one was Paul, the middle-sized was Aquilo, and the shorter, sleeping one was Sen, after presenting herself, which earned her a "nice to meet you" from both of them, she turned to another room after telling them, "I'll try to catch some sleep then, when you decide to go talk to Matthew, call me, I'll be next door." Paul had a puzzled look on his face, before nodding, and waving her goodbye, Aquilo entered the room after doing the same and she heard one of them 'calling dibs on the top bed', as they put it, she just smiled and headed to the nearby room, which, to her surprise, was occupied, three more girls where inside, two already sleeping, and the last one sitting on her bed, the only bed left a bottom one, she didn't mind much, she went to her bed, a sheet full of hay as a bed, with a higher part as the pillow, she sat down, and noticed the other girls looking at her, a look of worry on her face.

She knew how she felt, the same worry, fear and puzzlement she had, she said, softly, almost a whisper, "Don't worry, we'll be fine, I'll make sure of it." then, she gave her a slight grin, trying to look like she trusted her own words, she nodded back at Ashlyn, gave her a slight smile, and lowered her back to the bed, staring into the ceiling.

Ashlyn looked to the other two in the room, already sleeping, _Maybe I should do the same, tomorrow will be a long day,_ but even then, though her body was begging for some rest, her mind still wandered back and forth, through the day and what had occurred during it, still, she lay down on the bed, and thought on what had happened, and what would have to be done. The only sounds to make her some company were some cicadas outside, and the occasional dog barking somewhere in the town.

The offer appeared again in her mind, an opportunity he had said, she wasn't exactly sure about how she felt on that, on one side, it was better than starving to death, but then again, if they had understood that correctly, they would have to take the lives of other living beings, that didn't sit too well with her, the thought of taking a life not exactly a good feeling for her. Perhaps in the morning she would be able to talk to someone else about this, maybe the girl on the other bed, maybe the boys on her 'group', or even Matthew himself, perhaps he could explain it better during daytime.

She lay there undisturbed,lost in thought, until a voice from outside called her attention.

**Paul**

I can't sleep.

No matter what I do, how I lay down, I can't sleep. Too much has happened today for me to just calm down and drift into dreamland, Sen and Aquilo, meanwhile, either don't have the same problem or are just too tired to do anything other than rest.

I sighed, bringing myself to rise from the bed, just sitting up was difficult now that I had rested for a while, but I knew that I wouldn't sleep anytime soon, I had to do something, so, very slowly, I made my way outside, going past the door, trying to open it without much noise, down the stairs, creaking all the way, ad finally through a different door than the one we entered.

The sight that greeted me was a small social space, if one could even consider it that, a large yard, probably an area of about four of the bedrooms making a bigger room, a well in the middle, a large rectangular table and some benches around it, it seemed enough to hold a fair amount of people, in front of me, past the well, was a big building, what it was I had no clue yet, and even though I had to do something, I had no intent on checking it right now, _Maybe it's more rooms and whoever is inside is going to shout at me, don't need that this late in the night_.

I made my way to one of the benches and sat down, leaning my back on the table, watching the sky, that red moon was something that I had not expected, but honestly there wasn't much I could do about it, other than accept it, doesn't mean it feels normal to have it up there, it feels too weird to look up and see something that seems so familiar and at the same time not.

My mind wandered back to the offer we received today, it still boggles my mind, whoever they are, they just picked random people on the streets and said _Hey can you kill some things for us? We'll pay you for it._ It was one thing if Matthew had said animals, as in, hunt for food and such, but instead, if my memory, which somehow recognizes the words he said, goblins and orcs, if it is working as it should, it tells me that those are living beings, intelligent beings like us, or at the very least, smarter than the common animal that wanders around, like the cows, horses, rabbits and such other.

"And you think there was another way out of that?" A voice asked me, startled, I searched for it's source, not only had no-one been around here, but the voice was oddly familiar. After a few seconds, I spotted a figure looking back at me, sitting at the corner of the well, I looked at his face and felt some confusion.

It was me, or at least, something that looked like me, but it was different, it's clothes at least, but other than that, it had my face, my height, everything, even my tone of voice and posture, I looked straight into it's eyes, or at least in their general direction, "Who- no, what are you?" It just looked up into the sky, and back to me, before speaking.

"I'm you, your conscience if you will, you wanted to talk to someone about this, but seeing as there is nobody awake and you don't want to bother anyone, I have to step up and take that position." When it finished speaking, my mind was just turning, trying to make any sense of what had been said. It was me, or my conscience, but it was supposed to be just a voice in my head, not something that can actually be seen, _Maybe it's the stress that's making me see things._ Still, it was someone to talk about, even if it was myself.

"This is too weird, but frankly, today has been a long day, I won't bother trying to understand this now." I said, a tired look in my face as I looked back into the sky, before remembering it's first question. "Maybe there wasn't another way out, doesn't mean I have to like our current choice." I told it, occasionally looking around, at the well, at 'me', at the barracks, the sky, and around again. It just looked at me, occasionally looking around, it seemed pensive too, but maybe I was just seeing things after all, _trying to make bad jokes even at this time, truly I haven't changed much it seems_.

"What is done is done, there is no time to complain anymore, all you can do is focus on the future," it said to me, crossing it's arms as it looked at me.

"That may be so, but there may be another way, Matthew himself said it, we don't need to join in, we can choose other jobs if we find them.

"And you think you'll find a job as good as what he offered?" It asked and got up, walking around the well, "From what we saw back at that tavern, and from what Matthew said, it is the best choice all of us have," _Us, maybe it means me and it or everyone in the barracks, it honestly didn't matter too much, _he stopped besides the well and looked up again, "you can try to find something tomorrow, maybe you'll find work and a bricklayer, or maybe work in a tavern, cleaning either the dishes, the tavern itself, or both, but you and me both know that the volunteer corps is the best place at the moment.

It's words were, unfortunately, too true, it wasn't a good thought, but it was true, in the end, we wouldn't have a choice, if we wanted a somewhat good living, this would most likely be the best choice we would have. I sighed, trying to calm myself down a bit. "Unfortunately so, but you know me after all, I'm very stubborn, I'll find something tomorrow, no matter what." Even though I said that, I had no idea how I'd do that, and it, being 'me', _this is confusing, _knew what would happen if that failed, still it asked.

"And if you don't find anything?"

"Then I won't have much of a choice anymore now will I? I'll do what has to be done." I said, conviction and resignation present in my voice. Silence followed that exchange, when a sudden thought passed my mind, somewhat worrying and at the same time not so much. "So, can anyone else hear you?"

"No, just you, I'm a part of your imagination after all."

"So everything we talked about, if someone were to listen to it, it would just be me, talking to myself, like a madman?" It nodded. I sighed, not really a good first impression if anyone was to listen to it, then again, it was more likely that everyone was sleeping already, still, the thought that someone heard me was a bit disconcerting. 'Nothing we can do then."

"Indeed," it paused, looking as if it was thinking of something, maybe this was the way my mind behaved to make it look like someone else, it turned to me, "You have any more questions?" A slight smirk appeared on my face, not only was it good to change the subject, but maybe I could force some of my memory to work a bit.

The rest of the night was spent trying to remember anything I could, where I was from, who I knew, what I used to do, anything that could help me even a tiny bit in the following day, maybe I had some skill that would help me find a different job than the volunteer one, or maybe I knew one of these people, whatever I could learn from myself, even memories from family and friends.

Needless to say, it was a long night, and in the morning, I woke up still in the bench, with a headache even worse than the last one.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 - Choices**

**Advena**

As the sun rose over the town of Advena, the rays of sunlight, passing through the cracks on the window, managed to find their way directly into Sen's eyes, this time however, he couldn't force himself back to sleep. Much to his annoyance, he sat up in the bed, and looked around.

The room he had taken was comfortable enough, albeit a bit spartan in it's decoration and furniture; a headache greeted him after that thought, his mind racing to know where he knew the Spartan thing from, eventually, after a minute of thinking, he gave up, and looked around again, searching for his roommates, Aquilo, slightly taller than him, was still sleeping in his bed, on the top bed of the other bunk bed, safe from the rays of light at this time, _lucky him_, he thought, looking at the window, before he looked to the lower bed.

Them person supposed to be there, Paul, if he remembered correctly, was missing, maybe he had already woken up, and left to do something, he'd meet the man later he supposed. With more difficulty than he thought was needed, he managed to will himself off the bed, and made his way towards the window, preparing for the blinding light that was about to come, he closed his eyes, and pushed them open.

Despite his preparations, the light blinded him slightly, before his eyes accustomed themselves to the light, ever so slightly, he opened his eyes, and looked outside, _At least the sun seems to be the same_. He looked out into the city, they hadn't had the time to see it in the night, nor the light to do so, but now, in the gleaming sunlight, the city was even bigger than what Sen had expected, buildings of all sizes and shapes strewn around, the sounds of hammers, animals and people reached his ears, as he looked into the distance, he could see the faint outline of a wall, small, and gray, if his eyes weren't failing him, this city seemed gigantic in size, but that meant that there were many options of work, many places to be and see.

"Turn the lights off." Aquilo's voice cut his train of thought, some annoyance present in his voice, he turned in his bed to face the wall, before apparently deciding that that also wouldn't work, and began getting up in his bed, "Good morning everyone", he said, at the same that he started yawning, clearly a bit sleepy still, Sen suppressed a yawn of his own, before turning to address him.

"Morning, how was your night?" Sen asked, now facing Aquilo as he tried to get down from his bed.

"Not long enough, that's for sure," Aquilo jumped down, and started stretching his arms, as he turned around to look at the bed, "Morning Pa-", He stopped mid-sentence, turned back to Sen, and asked, "Where is he?" some confusion clear in his voice.

"No clue, It was empty when I woke up," He turned back to the window, before deciding to look around the immediate area of the 'Barracks', as it had been called, there seemed to be a small building near the back, _Hopefully a bath, he thought, _before he kept looking, there also seemed to be a small well and a table for them to eat, and near that... He turned back to the table again, and called Aquilo, "I think I found him."

Aquilo walked over to the window and looked out, there, sitting in the chair, leaning on the table with his back, was Paul, unmoving, probably sleeping, Aquilo frowned, still looking at him, before asking, "When did he get there and why? It's like he slept there by the looks of things." Sen couldn't help but agree, it was a bad position to sleep in, but the tiredness they had felt the last night was too strong to give them much of a choice, he himself had fallen asleep the moment he fell on the bed, which brought to him the question, _why didn't he sleep here_.

The answer had to wait however, as someone knocked on the door, Sen looked at Aquilo, who looked back at him, before Aquilo began moving to the door, while he asked, "Who's there?", before Aquilo reached the door, they heard a voice coming from the other side, a female voice he knew he had heard once, but couldn't remember who it was.

'It's me." Was all the person responded, as if that was enough to identify them, for Aquilo apparently, it was, as he opened the door and greeted her, from what he could hear, her name was Ashlyn, and he knew he had heard the name, his mind telling him it was last night, he nodded to her when she looked inside, and turned back to window to look around, Paul appeared to still be sleeping, or he had woken up but didn't move, still, he kept looking outside, away from the table, there seemed to be another area to it's right, though he couldn't see it thank to the roof it had. Ashlyn's question caught his attention, "Weren't there three of you?" some confusion present in her voice, it seemed that this morning was just as confusing as the last night.

He simply looked at her, pointed outside, and turned around again, this time looking at the city again, there seemed to be a flag flying above a building some ways away, but he couldn't see it too well, as he looked outside, Aquilo and Ashlyn started talking. "He slept outside yesterday it seems" Aquilo said, both of them still near the door.

"What? But why? Where did he even sleep?"

"No idea, we just woke up, we didn't talk to him yet, or anyone else for that matter. What we can see from here however is that he slept on a table outside."

"Shouldn't we go talk to him then? After that whole night sleeping on that table he might not be feeling well." Before Aquilo could respond, Sen heard a low grunt, followed by a long yawn, looking below him, he noticed Paul, still sitting in the chair, starting to get up, or at least willing himself to get up. Sen turned to tell both of them.

"He woke up." He said, before he made for the door, "Let's go", he told them, he stopped near them, they looked at him, nodded, and started moving, first Aquilo, then he left, followed by Ashlyn, he noticed someone hanging back, a little behind Ashlyn, but didn't ask about it, not now anyway, they made their way down the stairs, and as he looked around, he noticed things he hadn't during the night, for starters, the couches and the small table in the middle, a large round shield hanging in the wall, with two swords crossed at it's center, and even an empty weapon stand, this place was truly supposed to be, or have been, a barracks.

As they made their way outside, the sunlight hit him again, and although not as strongly as before, it was still a bit annoying, Aquilo, making his way towards Paul, began, "Hey, had a good night of sleep?" Paul turned around, a bit confused and sleepy, before he let out another yawn and stretched himself.

"Morning everyone," He said, waving to the others behind Sen,"Could have been better, my back's hurting a lot, but aside from that I'm fine. You?"

"Been better, so care to tell us why you're sleeping out here and not in the bedroom back there?" Aquilo said, pointing behind him, to the direction of the barracks, Paul just gave a sheepish smile and scratched the back of his head.

"Couldn't sleep, and I didn't want to wake anyone, so, I decided to go for a small walk, sat here a bit, and next thing I know, it's already daylight." After saying that, Paul looked at them, back at the table, and asked, "So why don't we sit down and talk a bit more?" Sen wasn't opposed to the idea, and the others didn't see a problem with it, so they all sat down, but before they could sit down, Ashlyn made her way to the head of the table, and only now did he pay attention to her, she was by far, the shorter of the group, a brown-pink hair, dropping all the way down to the middle of her back, behind her was a girl, taller than Ashlyn, and a bit taller than him too, he noticed, was following her, Ashlyn turned to all of them, and started.

"Guys, I'd like to introduce to you Idonia", She waved slightly from Ashlyn's right, he looked at her, brown hair a bit below her shoulders, she seemed shy, or at least uncomfortable with them, which he could understand, since they were all unknowns, in and unknown place. Still, they all greeted her, Sen with a nod, while Aquilo and Paul waved at her, after that, they sat down, as he looked around, he noticed that none of them knew what to talk about next, he sighed, _If I don't say anything, it's likely that we'll just sit here in silence._ He looked at everyone one more time, before asking.

"So, what exactly do we do now?" He looked around the table again, Aquilo looked like he had something to say, but confusion was clear on his face, as if he wasn't sure about saying it, Ashlyn and Idonia looked like they were thinking about something, while he and Paul just looked at the others. After what felt like an eternity waiting there, a sound caught their attention, the sound of an stomach grumbling.

"Uh... before anything, could we grab some food?" He turned to his right, only to notice Paul looking at them, a look of embarrassment on his face, he heard Aquilo trying to hide a laugh, and the girls just looked at each other before Ashlyn nodded, Sen agreed and they got up, before Aquilo turned to them and asked.

"Where do we even get food here anyway?"

...

A few minutes of walking, asking around and getting lost in some streets, the group finally made it's way to the market square as some called it, or the center of town, full of market stalls strewn around, selling all kinds of things, some selling flasks of some unknown liquid, others selling plants, weapons, even clothes, none of it their priority now, though they made a point to return to the clothes store at a later time, after some more time looking around the market stalls, and some occasions where Aquilo had to be dragged away from a Leathersmith's stall, they finally found the place they where looking for.

Some adventurers had recommended, a simple soup stall, but it was cheap, and it was agreed that they should not waste too much money at this time. The stall in question was not a big stall, the counter had three sides for chairs, four on each side, a big white cloth served as a simple roof and back wall, inside a man stood, an apron over his clothes, a cauldron behind him, and an almost persistent smile in his face, he welcomed them to Sal's Soups, and they ordered some.

Though Sal made some small talk with Aquilo, with Paul and Ashlyn sometimes joining in on the conversation, Sen just ate his food, occasionally answering some questions, always with few words, before they finally finished eating, the soup, although cheap, only 10 Aeris per serving, was good enough to last for a while, they bade him goodbye, and made for the place Matthew had been, questions already on their minds.

As they reached the street leading directly to the shack they had been before, they noticed some people leaving, though these didn't look like part of their group, they looked just like soldiers of the town, armor, weapons, two of them had robes, another a bow, the sight left the group surprised though, these didn't seem like the guards of the town, their equipment wasn't as uniformed as the guards, and the way they behaved was way different from the soldiers they had seem around town, while the soldiers always carried themselves with a sense of professionalism, these people seemed fairly laid back.

"Who are those?" Paul asked, looking at the group making their way out of their sight.

"Probably other volunteers" Sen answered, looking back to their objective. "Come on, we're here." He said, standing a few steps away from the door, as he looked back he saw the others still looking at the others watching the group turning a street some ways away, though he was also curious about those people, he had questions that he wanted answered at this moment, so that was the main concern now.

"Well then, shall we?" Ashlyn said, moving in front of them and opening the door, Idonia followed right behind her, the girl hadn't spoken much, not to anyone aside from Ashlyn, but Sen had expected that much, so he pushed the thoughts aside, and walked inside with the others.

The inside of the building was just as he remembered it from the day before, only this time, with the windows open, he could see more of the place, still, not much more was noticeable, same wall decorations, same benches around a cauldron, the only new thing was a hole on the far side roof where he saw light coming in from, probably a place for the smoke from the fireplace beneath the cauldron to leave the building.

Looking to the place where the counter stood they noticed Matthew there, filling papers, seemingly not too happy with his current situation, if the frown on his face was any sign of it, still, he had said they should return here today, and so, they made their way towards him.

* * *

**Matthew**

As always, more people meant more paperwork, he knew that, hated that, but that was his job, and do it he would.

The day hadn't been that busy, small groups of the last 'batch', as some called the new arrivals, had been entering his workplace, asking him the same questions he had heard many times before, and leaving before another group entered some time later.

The last group turning in the bounty for metals was a welcome addition to his day, as he talked with them about their adventure in the nearby mines, with the excuse that it was all in order to get information about the place, it was in fact, just a distraction from his paperwork, after some minutes of talking and laughing, the group left and he went back to his work, filling paperwork, mainly on the new arrivals, some about the state of the volunteers force, or just managing new bounties.

The door opened, five people this time, two girls and three guys, usual group size and composition, from their clothes, they were part of the new batch, they looked around before making their way towards him, intentions clear to him as he laid back into the wall and eyed them, though they were a welcome distraction as the others had been, these would be just like the last groups, same questions, before leaving to attend to their new found problems, they were nearing his counter when he stood up and motioned towards the benches, "Welcome back, sit down and I'll help as well as I can." Directly to the point, something that his colleagues didn't appreciate too much, but it was his way, and they would need all the time they could get to prepare themselves.

They sat down and looked at him, as he made his way to the bench in front of theirs and noticed them staring, as if waiting for him to say something, before one of the boys started, "So, what exactly are we doing?" A vague question, he knew, but it was one of the most basic ones.

"Simply put, we need more people to help the town, your jobs will involve mainly going outside the walls, dealing with any external problems the town might have." Also a vague answer, but not far from the truth, although the details of it would be explained soon.

"How exactly? You said we would have to fight or something, right?" One of he girls said, the pink haired one, he was still debating whether or not she actually had that hair color normally or if that was something else, before dismissing the thought, whatever the case, it wasn't important.

"Yes, essentially, we have problems outside the walls that we can't send our own soldiers out to deal with, otherwise we may become defenseless should anything bad happen, so-"

"So you want us to do it?" The other girls said, looking directly at him, he knew what she wanted to say, _you want others so your own don't die_, which wasn't far from the thought process of those in power, but there wasn't another way to phrase it, the dark skinned boy spoke next.

"So if you lose people in these... ventures, your military isn't affected?" Though he spoke matter of factly, the meaning was the same as before, another guy had asked the same thing before, the tall muscular one, that seemed to be leading the whole group before, only more bluntly, he thought he heard the kid saying something under his breath, but ignored it, opting to continue speaking.

"Yes, as such, we provide you with money and a place to stay, which brings me to my next point, how you will fight them, as I'm sure you want to know." He looked around, two nodded, the others just looked at him, he proceeded. "With the funds you have currently, you should be able to pay for entry in one of the many guilds in the town, as others call them." He saw some eyebrows raising, curious and confused with his statement, not the first time, and certainly not the last.

"Each one is different, they teach different combat arts, so to speak, the Knight guild, the Hunter guild, the Thief and or Scout guild, since they don't exactly know how to call it themselves, the Priest and Mage-"

"Wait, wait, the mage guild? As in, magic, shooting fireballs and stuff?" Another expected outburst, this one from one of the boys, apparently it was a concept they had knowledge on, but only in theory, wherever they came from, they didn't have practical use of magic.

"And the PRIEST guild? Like, those guys in the church that make sermons and stuff?" The same guy asked, this also a common question.

"Yes, and yes but no, the Mages guild trains various schools of magic, the mages there can explain it better, the priest guild however, or as they call themselves, the Church of Luminus, are those that deal with light magic, healing and things of that area." He looked back at them, some confused, others surprised, but the one that asked all of that seemed to be the most interested of them in the new information, whatever the case, he proceeded.

"Lastly the Ungeist sect, better known as the Demon or Dark guild, they teach the same as all the others but with some different things, for starters, the only magic they teach is dark magic, their knights receive different training from the regular knights, and lastly, you can't join any other guilds after joining them, and you can't leave them either."

"Wait what, calm down, so, if we want to, we can join two guilds?" The dark skinned guy asked.

"And why can't we leave after joining?" The girl from earlier asked, still staring at him.

"First question, yes, if you have the coins, you could be a hunter that has the power to heal allies, or a knight that can cast fireballs, that sort of stuff, as to the second question, nobody knows, they don't explain, and people don't try to test that theory, not anymore at least." The last part brought some worry to their faces, which was expected, some 'incidents' of Ungeist Volunteers disappearing had become common for quite some time now, and Matthew was certain they wouldn't stop any time soon. He looked around again, and asked, "So, anymore questions? There's a map on the right side with the locations of the guilds, or you could just ask around, price for any of them is 6 Argenti-"

"SIX ARGENTI? That's almost all of our money, not to mention we'll have to pay for food and clothes at some point." The outburst from them was not uncommon, Matthew looked at them, and began speaking.

"Yes, you see, we will be providing you with free housing, food, training and equipment for the duration of your training, which should be one week, after which, the barracks will start charging ten Aeris per day you spend there, and before you ask, whichever money you've already spent before coming here will not be regained." It had happened before, people wasted their money before actually thinking about it, granted they weren't told they'd need it later, but it was supposed to be common sense to not waste everything as soon as possible.

They looked at each other, looked at him, and at each other again, not certain of what to do, or rather, he thought they knew what to do, just not how to start doing it, so, he decided to give a little help, "If I were you, I'd go looking for a guild at this exact moment, the sooner you start, the sooner you finish, and the sooner you can make your own money." They looked at him, no clear emotion on their faces, before one of the boys got up and moved to the map on the wall, before the others, after exchanging glances, followed suit, albeit at a much slower pace than he did.

As they looked over the map, he remembered the last detail they had to know about their new 'jobs', "One last thing, currently, you are volunteer recruits, if you manage to put together 20 Argenti, you can buy you Volunteer member status, you get free from paying on the barracks, and new quests will be available to you." At that one of the guys turned around, the same one that asked about the mages and priests.

"Why do we have to buy that to have more opportunities available, it doesn't make much sense." He asked, apparently not understanding it yet.

"Because if we manage to gather that much money before dying, it means we're ready to survive the harder quests, isn't that right?" The girl from before said, to which he nodded, it was decided, after novices died trying to tackle quests which were way above their league, that they should pay the tax before being able to even see those quests, therefore signaling that they were prepared to take on whatever came their way, and that they were smart enough to know when to pull back.

The group looked over the map for a few moments longer, before turning to him, thanking him for his time, and making their way outside, with the sun just reaching it's highest point, they still had a great amount of time to decide where to go next, and what guild to choose, but that was out of his hands, so, he walked back to his counter, picked up his pencil, as the merchant had called it, and started writing again, waiting for the next distraction to come by.

* * *

**Sen**

The group left the Crimson HQ, as the guards had taken to calling it, and made their way back to the barracks, from there they could make their way to wherever they wanted to go, Sen had been thinking about where to go for the last few minutes ever since leaving the HQ, he knew he wasn't as strong as others probably were, but there was one thing he was, faster, or at least, his sparse memory was telling him that, and since he didn't remember that much he wouldn't go against this single piece of information he had.

"So, what will you do?" Paul asked, moving in front of the group, his head turned slightly towards them, seemingly curious of their decision, or just wanting to learn more about them, or just to pass the time, or all of them, whatever the case, Sen spoke first.

"Scouts, probably, I think I'm fast enough." He said, to which Paul nodded, before turning to face the others, truth be told, he himself was a bit curious about their choices too, plus, if they were to travel together, it would be good to know what each of them would and could do, "Aquilo?" he asked, to which Aquilo answered.

"I've been thinking on it, but I'm still not sure, the word Paladin has been going through my mind, but what even is a paladin?" Sen looked at Paul, who just shrugged, before turning to the girls, who just shrugged as well, before Paul started.

"I think, maybe, I'm not sure, that it's a sort of a Holy Warrior, like, a Knight and priest, or something like that?" Sen looked at him, and something in his mind was agreeing with that assessment, and apparently, Aquilo agreed too.

"Yeah, sounds right, so, I'll go for the Church then, that way, I'll take the first step to it." Sen just nodded and turned to the girls, Ashlyn looked around, and begun speaking.

"I've been thinking about it, I'm not sure yet, I'll get back to you on that one." Sen nodded, before turning to Idonia, she looked at them and said.

"Same here, nothing conclusive yet." Sen nodded, and turned to Paul.

"Not that sure to be honest, scout is a no-go since I'm not as fast, and I don't think I'm strong enough to go Knight, so maybe Hunter? I'll tell you by day's end." He said, before looking ahead again, the conversation seemingly over, not that he minded it that much, but these conversations of theirs felt somewhat weirder than he thought he remembered, but maybe it was because they didn't know each other enough yet, whatever the case, Paul spoke up again, "So, what do we do now?"

Sen looked up, first at Paul, then at the others, apparently Aquilo didn't know either, but the girls seemed to be thinking on that before, as Ashlyn quickly spoke, "What if we start going to our guilds now? Or at the very least checking which one we want to join. That way we get this done sooner and don't have to worry about money for it later." He had to agree on the plan, should anything happen to their money before they joined a guild things would become much harder for the affected, grunts of agreement and nodding signaled him that the others agreed with Ashlyn.

They made their way back to the market square, not to grab clothes, not yet anyway, but to ask for directions, though Sen had remembered the map Matthew had shown them, it was better to make sure he knew where he was going, than to get lost in the middle of this unknown place. Though the plan was to have everyone go together, it seemed as though the situation would be different.

According to another Volunteer they met while asking around, the guilds were each in a different part of the town, the Church that Aquilo wanted to join stood on top of a hill on the north side of town, the hunter and knight guilds were located near the west gate, the gate closest to the places were they would have to go eventually, the Ungeist Sect was located on the South part, the Mage's guild on the west side, and as for the Scout's guild...

"You see, they have some sort of... initiation test, or something of that sort." Sen looked at the woman, her face covered by some sort of scarf, a bit confused, they required something else aside from the money? "Essentially, all they give you are clues, and you have to find the location based solely on that information." Marvelous, he thought, now he'd have to go around this place he knew nothing of, to a place he had no idea where it could possibly be, though when he thought about it, it made sense, it was basically what a scout's job boiled down to.

"Fine, where do I get this information?" He asked, the woman eyed him a bit, then motioned for him to get closer, and whispered some directions to him, ending it with a quiet warning to not tell anyone, with that, she bade them goodbye and left.

"So, you got it?" Paul asked.

"Probably, you guys can go, I can't get help on this." He said, turning to face the group, they all nodded, though some looked like they wanted to say something, before stopping themselves, they offered him good luck, and went on to the Church, while left, in search of the place he had to go.

He just hoped it wouldn't take too long to find it.

* * *

**AN : So, for starters, yes I took a while, I had decided that I would try and make a chapter every two weeks, but life and procrastination manage to make their way into my time table. I can't promise this won't happen again, but I'll try to keep it from happening.**

**Secondly, this is my first writing attempt, and english is not my first language, so any mistakes or advice anyone may have on both wording and story writing in general I'd appreciate it.**

**Thanks for reading, see you in two to four weeks.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Yes, I live, I won't give up on this story this early, slightly detailed update as to why it took so long in the end, Enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter 7 - Guilds**

**Ashlyn**

The walk to the Church of Luminus was fairly uneventful, if one wereto ignore the guy running after his chickens that is. The church was located on the top of a small hill, similar to the barracks, only the Church, being more important than a simple barracks for outsiders, was a symbol of power for the religion, as such, it was far larger than any of them had expected, just the entrance to the church alone was the size of their barracks, and from what they could see from the outside, there was far more than just this.

Standing there, mouth open and in awe of the place, they failed to notice one of the priests make their way to them until he was right in front of them. "I bid you welcome to our home, brothers and sisters, how may I help you in this fine day?" His question brought their attention back into the real world and to him, having a quick look around, Ashlyn noticed she wasn't the only one that was surprised by all this, altough the thing that confused her more was the way he spoke, maybe it was her lack of memories as to whether or not priests did talk like that, or if it was simply the fact that they didn't even notice him in the first place, whatever the case, it wasn't important for now.

Aquilo took a step forward, a bit hesistant to speak, maybe he didn't know how to talk to this person, but before he said anything, the priest spoke again. "I assume you are the newcomers that arrived yesterday?" They nodded. "I see. Am I correct in assuming one of you is here to study the Arts of our Lord?" They nodded again, Paul motioned to Aquilo, who just straighned his back, and seemed to be more nervous than they had expected, the priest simply walked closer to him and said, "You wish to join our most holy order?" Aquilo nodded, "I will have to ask the head priest, please wait here." With that, he turned around and went inside the temple, Aquilo seemed to breathe in relief the moment the priest left their sight.

"Hey, you okay?" She asked, with Idonia staring at Aquilo, and Paul unsure of what to do, she could understand why he was so nervous there, maybe, being a church, there was a certain way they were supposed to act, and he didn't want to screw up on his first chance, still, the way he was acting was a bit too much in her opinion. Looking around, there were many people here, some of them, dressed in long white, blue and gold robes, walked about the front of the Church, which seemed to be some sort of garden, others however, were clearly not from around here. The most noticable thing about them wasn't the uniform, though it was still different from the others in that it was not a robe, but regular clothes, but what they were carrying.

Some of them had books, which she could guess were the Churchs Bible or something, but strapped to their side, some had maces, others had swords, but all of them had a sort of look on their faces, she couldn't exactly explain what it was, but it seemed all of them were always on edge, always at attention, they kept looking around every once in a while, others were simply sitting, their heads looking to the ground all of the time, occasionaly looking upwards, before looking down again, it was a sad sight to be honest, and she was thankful that Aquilo finally calmed down enough to talk again.

"I'm fine, just a bit nervous is all..." He said, a bit of colour missing from his face still.

"Should we look for some water to drink? It might help you calm down" Paul said, looking around for any place to get water, "I'd say the fountain over there, but I'm not sure if any of the priests would be mad at it, and it's frankly too early to have someone screaming at you." Though the second part of his phrase struck her as a little weird, and made Idonia nod her head in agreement, though whether because of the priest of the second part Ashlyn couldn't tell, she could see how the priests could maybe become mad over that, or maybe not, and he was just being overly cautious. "Maybe the water's holy? Or something that we can't use? I don't know." He said, as if to explain himself.

Whatever the case was, their conversation was cut short as they noticed someone moving their way, looking to the entrance, she noticed an elderly woman, wearing the same clothes as the others, a white robe with a blue cross coming all the way from the bottom of the robe to the top, with the chest area having the horizontal part of the cross, and gold details in the border of the cross, though she also had a white sash with golden borders slung on her torso, she apprached them, the other priest nowhere to be found, the lady stopped in front of them and eyed them curiously, "My, what have we here? Who wishes to talk to me on this fine afternoon?"

Ashlyn made a quick glance upwards and sure enough, the sun was right on top of them, before she turned back to the Head Priest, or should it be priestess? In any case, she noticed Aquilo still fidgeting and thinking on what to say, so she decided to take the initiative. "Good afternoon Ma'am, sorry to disturb you," The priestess simply smiled and waved at her, probably saying that it was not trouble. "but our friend here," She gestured to a still very nervous Aquilo, "wished to learn the ways of a priest." The Priestess turned to face him, and he turned to face Ashlyn, before looking to the lady, she eyed him up and down, almost like she was examining him, that didn't help his already nervous state, before she smiled once again.

"Our church is always open for everyone, whether they are from Advena or Outsiders such as you, Unfortunately, we are no longer able to freely teach our arts, I suppose Matthew told you?" Aquilo nodded, and pulled out his coin bag, before the old lady motioned for him to stop, "The payment is not for me, but for the church, once inside, I'll show you who to pay, now, shall we?" She motioned to the inside of the church.

Aquilo turned to them, whether to say goodbye or because he needed help she couldn't tell, but they had to do something. Paul took the initiative, "Excuse me Ma'am, can we have some water for him first? He seems to be a bit nervous." She turned to him with a puzzled look on her face, before motioning to the fountain.

"Why, you can drink from over there, there's no problem." She seemed to notice the change in Paul's face and asked, "You weren't thinking something silly like that being holy water or something, were you?" She looked to her side to notice Paul's face becoming a bit redder than normal, and to see both him and Idonia Shaking their heads. At least now she confirmed her earlier doubts.

With the new confirmation that the fountain was safe, the group moved towards it, though she didn't say anything, the walk here had made her a bit thirsty. After a good drink, Color had returned to Aquilo's face, and they turned to say goodbye and wish him good luck.

"MOVE! OUT OF THE WAY!" Those shouts caught everyone's attention, both them and others around the courtyard, turned to the stairs to see what the cause of that commotion was.

The sight that greeted them was not something she expected to see, a group of adventurers, seven in total, came rushing up the stairs, one of them being carried, she seemed to be unconscious, and judging by the way they looked, it was safe to assume they had been fighting before. The girl being carried had wounds everywhere, in her arms, legs, even a slice on her face.

She wanted to turn away, but she couldn't, all she could do was stare at it while trying her hardest to look away, to her luck, Idonia seemed to notice, and positioned herself in front of her, blocking most of her vision from the sight in front of her, she noticed the priestess moving away from them and towards the other group, she could hear some frantic speaking from the others, with what sounded like pleading too, before some light began emanating from their position, shining bright like the sun.

She moved to side just in time to catch the Head Priestess doing some magic to the wounded girl, she only heard her saying something that sounded like Stabilize before she motioned for another priest, she said something to him and the other party followed him inside.

After all that, the lady made her way back to them. "My apologies." She didn't know what to say or do, she just stood there, watching the other party rush into the temple, priests moving out of the way or following them further into the corridor, the silence around her made it clear that nobody in her group knew what to do as well. The priestess seemed to notice their expressions but didn't say anything, she just kept looking at them.

"You... don't seem too affected by it." Paul said, some tension on his voice, he sounded a bit shaken from what they had witnessed, not that she could blame him, it wasn't something any of them expected to see. Not this day at least.

She looked at them, visible sadness in her face, "It is an unfortunate side-effect of being a priest, things like that happen so often," She sighed,"Were we not able to keep working in these conditions more would die." She stared at the floor for a while, before shaking her head and looking back up, her calm expression back to her face. She gestured to the Temple's entrance, trying to change the subject, "Now then, shall we begin your training?" Aquilo turned to them, after some seconds of hesitation, he nodded to them, and followed the Priestess. They watched him dissapear into the temple, and turned to leave.

They still had to find their own guilds, after all.

After some minutes of walking, they had arrived at the center of town, now heading to the Western part of town, where the Hunter and knight, or warrior, guilds were located, halfway through the Square however, Idonia stopped.

"I'll see you guys later." Was all she said, and she started moving, before they could even say anything, she dissapeared in the mass of people walking the streets at this time, she seemed to be going to the south, if she was remembering the directions correctly. She looked at Paul, he simply shrugged, and motioned to the way they were supposed to go, knowing trying to find her in this place would be fairly difficult, she relented, hoping she'd be alright, and began following Paul towards the guilds.

He seemed quieter than normal, but the silence suited her just fine right now, the sight from the group at the church still fresh in her mind, it was unsettling, what the Priestess had said too, she couldn't understand how one could simply not be affected by something like that, or being so lightly affect as she looked.

As her mind wandered, she barely paid any attention to the way they were walking, simply following where Paul went, until her mind was brought back to reality by a new sound, she looked up at the source, but was greeted by a wall.

From what she could see of the guilds, they where the same building, moreover, it seemed to be built more like some sort of fortification than just a place, an entrance at each corner of the "Fort", above each door, a small sign, one with two swords, and one with a bow and arrow, she looked at Paul, he seemed to be looking around, before looking back at her, "See you inside." She nodded, and went to the entrance. Stopping at the door, she looked around before opening the door, there seemed to be more guards here than at other parts of town, which made sense after she remembered that this was near the gate that lead to "Enemy" territory.

As the sound she had been hearing suddenly subsided, she noticed Paul, standing near the other door, leaning on the wall, looking down, probably gathering courage, at least she wasn't the only one, she saw him taking a deep breath before she decided to take the first step, grasping the door handle, she entered the Warrior guild.

The first thing that caught her attention was the sounds coming from another room, probably the same place the sounds she had heard before were coming from. Another thing was how the person standing behind a counter seemed to be expecting some kind of trouble, what with all the equipment she was weaing.

Chestplate, arm protection, head protection, a sword on top of the counter and some knives in her hands, she was either very careful, or just like staying with these thing, or maybe both. Ashlyn made her way to this lady, and the whole way she stared her down, she even stopped playing with her kinves the closer Ashlyn got, which made her somewhat disconcerted. She stopped in front of the counter, and the lady just looked her from top to bottom, before finally speaking, "Need something?"

"U-um... I'd... like to join the warriors guild." She managed to get out, still a bit unerved with the way the lady stared at her, without ever breaking eye contact with her, she picked up a paper from under the desk, and some sort of pencil, she put both down in front of her, and pointed to a part of the paper.

Breaking eye contact with the lady for a second, she noticed it looked like a contract, there were many terms, nothing too sketchy though, from what she could read, it was fairly straightforward, what she could and could not do, what she'd receive after teh training was over, and what rights she had, all of it in only a single page, amazingly. She looked at the lady, picked up the pen, and wrote her name on the paper.

The lady looked at the paper, stored it in a different place from where she'd picked it up from, and extended her open hand to Ashlyn, she grasped it, and the lady smiled as she shook her hand. "Welcome to the guild." Her grin looked like she'd seen some new challenge or something, a mix of hapinness and something funny, she let go of her hand, and motioned to the door nearest to her, on the opposite side of the room where the entrance was, Ashlyn made her way to it, it was time to see what this was all about.

She didn't know what was worse, the sunlight hitting her squarely in her eyes, or the sounds that assaulted her ears, granted she had heard those sounds before, but here, closer to their origin, they sounded far louder than she expected, when her sight returned to her, what she saw was more amazing than she had expected.

Whether because she had interest in these thing before coming here or because it just looked awesome she didn't know, it could be both, as most things of this day, but it was something that she wanted to remember for as long as possible.

A large open place, larger than she thought it was seeing it from outside, many people, men and women, tall and short, strong and slender, people of all types were in this location, for only one thing. Training. Men in shiny armor, men with no armor whatsoever asides from their clothes, women with the same equipment, some fully protected, others simply with clothes on. Strange armors too, some were some kind of chain, others looked like metal plates, and others even looked like scales.

Even their weapons were varied, some used regular spears, other swords, some even had spears with curved blades, other axes and such, some people even had curved swords, CURVED. SWORDS. She didn't know why, but she laughed a bit, probably something she had heard before but didn't remember.

Before she could appreaciate the location more, a tall man made his way to her, dressed in the chain armor she'd seen before, a closed face helmet on his head, which to her seemed to be simply overkill, specially in this hot day, he imposed as much fear and attention as the lady from the room before, if not more. She tensed up as he stood in front of her.

His voice didn't match with his appearance, for starters, it sounded like the voice of a father talking to their child, it was soft, but not too soft, it wasn't deep as she expected. "A new recruit?" He said, looking her from top to bottom, just like the lady, "You don't look very strong, but you seem agile, are you sure you want to be a warrior?" He asked, some concern in his voice, he wasn't flat out rejecting her though, so either he thought she stood a chance, or he simply couldn't do that, or, once more, both.

"Sir, it is my choice, it is what I decided to do." She said, her voice firm. She knew she wanted to do this, she wans't certain of the reason, but it was what she chose, and it was what she would do, no matter what.

The warrior seemed to think about it a while before simply shrugging, "Well, if that is your choice, I can't exactly say no to that, come on, let's get you started." He turned, and started walking towards the back of the training grounds, as they walked, he began talking. "This, is Altana's Main Training Grounds, as well as the Warrior and Hunter Guilds location, here not only we, but theregular soldiers train and prepare for any combat that they may have to participate in." _So this is used by the whole city? But is it big enough for that? _She thought, it did seem like a big place, but not big enough to house all of these people, let alone the guards and other soldiers as he had said.

Before she could think any more on what he said, they left the building through a door near the back, and entered a small field, probably larger than a baseball field, the Warrior, after leading her to the edge of the field, turned to face her, and moved his hands behind his back. "My name is Torvald, I'll be your instructor for this week, with others to give you tips should you wish for it or if I'm unavailable. This," he gestured to behind him, "is your first exercise, you will run the course, so we can better ascertain what you are good at, how fast and strong you are. We will start whenever you're ready." With that, he walked off to the side, and grabbed an acessory from nearby, before returning to stand next her at the edge.

She looked around and saw other soldiers doing the course, some in pairs, others in groups with an instructor, the course seemed fairly simple, some running, some jumping, climbing, weight lifting. Deciding that there had been enough waiting, she motioned for Torvald that she was ready with a nod, and he pressed a button on the thing he had grabbed earlier, before he began running into the field. She followed, preparing herself for the challenges ahead.

It couldn't be that hard, right?

Looking back, having that kind of confidence only made it worse when she finished the course barely managing to breathe, with every muscle in her body screaming at her. Her heart was pumping in ways she never had thought possible, her legs hurt only by standing, so she dropped down the moment Torvald said it was over, and her arms could barely be raised. All things considered, it could be worse, she could be lying down in the middle of the field, like some people she'd seen around, at least she had completed the course.

After running a far longer than she thought possible for a simple training exercise, Torvald stopped moving and pressed the same button again, before shouting stop. His helmet covered his face so she couldn't even know whether he was amused, concerned or something else, he put the thing back in a bench and made his way to her.

"Not bad, not bad at all, how are you feeling?" He seemed to notice her hesitation as she thought on what to tell him. "Tell me truthfully, if you lie you're fine and get hurt we can't finish the training in the week you have freely."

"My arms hurt... a lot. My legs are trembling... my heart is beating more than I think should be normal... aside from that... I'm fine... I think..." She managed to get out, in between deep breaths, lying down on the ground.

The knight gave her a loud laughter as a response, before saying. "Good, it means you're still alive. It seems I was correct, you're agile, but not strong, I have an idea on what weapon to give you, but first, drink some water and rest a bit." He motioned to the bench after saying that, and she noticed a barrel and a crate standing to the left of the bench. Still lying in the ground, she looked at the Knight as he moved over to the crate, opening it and grabbing two cups, he didn't seem the tiniest bit tired after that, not even winded, even after running with all that armor through the course.

He filled the two cups, left them by the bench, and helped her up, with a grunt of pain and a lot of force, she managed to get up, her body didn't seem to hurt as much while standing, but still, after getting to the bench, she sat down, downing the water in an instant, almost choking on it. Torvald was still standing near the barrel, cup on the bench and helmet still on, he motioned to the other cup, "You can drink if you want to, I'm fine for now." It confirmed that Torvald was not, in fact, tired at all. She grabbed the water and drank it, slower than before this time.

While resting on the bench, watching people running the course, entering and leaving the training field, she noticed a group moving inside, mainly because someone she knew was in it, Paul moving with three more people, from their clothing, she could guess that aside from him, everyone had been here for a while, alongside them were the front desk lady and another person, if she wasn't mistaken, it was someone that had arrived with her in the tower, the desk lady motioned to Torvald, and after some talking, left the guy with him.

Torvald took him to the edge of the field he'd gone with her too, already preparing for another run, without even removing the armor as well, he started to make his way back to the bench, supposedly to grab the thing he had used before, looking at it, it seemed to be a clock, a word weirdly familiar to her, it was as if she knew of it and at the same time she didn't, which caused a bit of a headache. After getting near the bench, he said, "Wait just a bit, and we'll continue the training, alright?' She nodded, and made herself comfortable, or at least as comfortable as she could be in a wooden bench, as she watched the others practice on the field.

A few minutes after, however many had passed she wasn't sure, the new group finished its run on the field, with the ones that seemed to have been here longer than her finishing the course in slightly better conditions than her, as in, they didn't drop down after finishing the course, the same happened to Paul and the other guy, though the other guy seemed to be trying his hardest to not fall on the ground, while Paul immediately made his way to the wall and leaned there, legs trembling slightly.

The two trainers walked up to the barrels and filled more cups, with Torvald re-using the two cups she had used before, the whole group made for the benches after some seconds of resting, and the bench was filled instantly, with Paul still leaning on the wall. The two "veterans" talking to each other, a guy and a girl, while the new people just stood around trying to not fall from the exercise, and the trainers talking to each other.

Some time later, Torvald made his way back to the group and adressed her and the other guy, "Very well you two, I believe you had enough time to rest, time to continue your training." With that, he turned and headed to the door, stopping beside it to wait for them. Seeing there was no other choice she rose and went after him, with the new guy following close behind.

Moving back into the main building brought a few questions to her mind, such as, why weren't these two places just a single one, and why was this place so huge, but this was not the time for answers, and there probably wasn't any real reason other than because they could or because they needed it so.

A short walk revealed to her a fairly generous selection of wooden weapons, swords, axes, maces, spears, or in this case staffs, but still, hammers and the such, even some shield to the side, of different sizes. The instructor motioned to the weapons as he turned to look at them, "Now then, choose one of these and stand ready, the weapons you choose will be the ones you will be trained with for this next week."

She and the new guy looked at Torvald, at each other, and moved near the weapon rack, something in her already knew what to do, and she picked the sword without a second though, the other guy looked around a bit, before deciding on a spear, with that, both of them turned back to Torvald, who kept looking at them, or rather, their weapons.

"Now, stand ready, as if you were about to enter combat." As he said that, she took a postion she thought was correct, first, she put both feet together, then, her right foot moved backwards, sword held by both hands, pointing forwards, she flexed her legs, and looked around, the spear guy had done the same, one foot behind, one hand holding the staff on the back with another one at the front, pointing it forwards, before both of them looked back at Torvald.

He walked around them, hands folded at his back, examining everything, their posture, how they held their weapons, probably even if they were correctly balanced, she wasn't very sure, he stopped in front of them, and said. "Well done," A smile formed on her face, "Could have been better," a frown took its place, "But well done nonetheless. Now, we will practice basic movements with your weapons, it is imperative that you manage to execute them without even having to think while out there if you want to return alive. Are you prepared?" They both nodded, and he began giving them instructions on how to move, thrusting the weapons forwards, swinging from one side to the other, an attack from overhead, and many more.

Sometimes he'd stop to point out something they were doing incorrectly, like moving just the upper part of the body for the attacks, or moving the legs too much when attacking, lecturing them on their stances, their balance, basic things, sometimes things that she herself had noticed, others were things that seemed so trivial, but once he showed her the correct way, she noticed the difference.

They spent the whole afternoon doing that, simply striking air, slashing, thrusting, swinging, many times she'd felt like her arms would fall, and yet they managed to make it to the end of the day. Everything hurt, yes, but it would prove to be worth it if that meant she wouldn't die should the time for combat arrive.

That thought was still in her head as she moved back to the town square, some of the trainees moving with her, since all training ended at the same, people moved together to eat, for security, and for company. Still, the thought of having to go out and kill other living beings, just so she could keep living, it didn't sit well with her, even if it was what had to be done, it definetily didn't feel right.

Her thoughts were interrupted by their arrival on the centre, with the sound of people chattering, the smell of the food, the aching in her body even, she took the moment and moved to the same place they'd eaten at earlier in the day. This time not with a big group, just her and Paul, not that he was present phisically, he seemed to be there, but not really, if that made any sense.

Still, once they were done eating, they paid for the food, careful of the money in their pouches, and made their way back to the Volunteer Lodge, as most people they met had called it, it had so many names, there wasn't actually a wrong one; their group was far smaller this time, considering the number of new people wasn't that high to begin with, nor was the number of people that choose to be a hunter or warrior.

The walk back was fairly uneventful, the people talked about how difficult the training had been, how much it hurt, and that they wanted to rest. After reaching the lodge a debate was had as to who would use the bath first, and before long, she was sitting inside the rather large 'bathtub' that there was inside the bath house. Her body finally relaxing, her mind drifted to what happened just in this first day in this new land.

The choices each of them had made, the things they saw, the things they would see, as her mind moved from one thought to another, she began to drift away, almost sleeping inside the bathtub before one of the girls woke her up, as they were about to leave.

She had almost forgotten the two sets of clothes the Guilds had arranged for them, one to sleep and another for regular use, it wasn't much, but it would have to do. She made her way out and to her bed, tomorrow would be a long day, and she needed energy if she was to make it through the day.

On her way back, she passed Paul, who wished her a good night, returning the gesture, she moved inside, past the dark main room, and up to her quarters. Idonia wasn't there, and the whole way she didn't find a single trace of Aquilo or Sen too. Perhaps their guilds worked differently and only let their students out later, or even, not at all. Still, she knew where Aquilo was, and Sen couldn't be that far, the only thing that worried her at this moment was Idonia's whereabouts.

It had been such a long day that she barely considered where she had gone to, there weren't many choices left for her to make, but still, she felt worried for not knowing where she would be, she didn't know her that much, but the girl had decided to follow her, so the least Ashlyn thought she could do was make sure she knew where she was in case Idonia needed any help.

Suddenly, as she was lying down on her bed, her whole body relaxed againg, the pain from the training still noticable, but less present, fatigue finally caught up to her, and she started to drift to sleep, hoping only to be able to wake up in time for training the next day.

If today had been any indication, the training would only get rougher from here, and she would need every ounce of energy she could get.

* * *

**A/N : Well would you look at that, after, what? Some two to three months, I return, with another part of this, whatever this is, for you.**

**For those wondering what happened, it was a multitude of reasons, but mainly, the fact that I am a master procrastinator, and that I don't think this chapter was made with as much quality as I wanted or it deserved.**

**I had started to write this in the end of November, and once I finished it all, I looked at it and said "It sucks", and decided to rewrite another day as it was late, then procrastination and finals hit me(the former being more at fault for the delay), and I never got around to finishing it.**

**Until this last week that is. I know it is advancing at a snails pace, but I'm still trying to get the grips on this whole writing thing, so please bear with me.**

**Constructive criticism is appreciated, as always, and see you in however long it takes me to write the next part, hopefully in one month if it all goes well.**

**Have a good day everyone.**


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